January 30, 2009 4:16 pm

Tennessee Titan defensive tackle Albert Haynesworth, set to become an unrestricted free agent when the free agent period begins Feb. 27, is a boat fan, and would like nothing more than to get some free time on Seattle Seahawks owner Paul Allen’s yacht, Octopus.

The super yacht measures 414 feet, costs over $200 million and has a permanent crew of 60.

Haynesworth talked about the yacht and his impending free agency with KJR’s Dave "Softy" Mahler this afternoon in a telephone interview from the Super Bowl. Listen to the audio link here.

Haynesworth sounds content to hit free agency to obtain the longtime financial security he covets. The Titans franchised him last year. But Haynseworth reached incentives placed in his contract that do not allow the Titans to franchise him for the 2009 season.

Read James Wyatt of the Tennessean’s report from his conversation with Haynesworth here.

On whether he expects to be a Titan next season: "Well, the political answer is of course I do."

On becoming a free agent: "I’ve got my agent looking at the whole thing, making sure we’re protected in every way. That’s really what we’re looking at. I don’t know if we’re looking for a certain thing, but it’s just as long as we’re protected every why. This is football. Our contracts are not guaranteed. It’s not like baseball, so you can’t take a hometown discount per se because this could be definitely my biggest contract. Hopefully not my last, but definitely my biggest, so I kind of want to make I guess a home run or something like that and be set for life and set your family up for life, and generations to come.

On Seattle coaxing him to come to Seattle: "He’s (Paul Allen) going to have to give me baseball money if he loans me that boat. Hopefully he fills it up, because if he doesn’t, gosh. That thing must take a couple hundred thousand to fill it up. That thing is huge."

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Gregg Bell joined The News Tribune in July 2014. Bell had been the director of writing for the University of Washington's athletic department for four years. He was the senior national sports writer in Seattle for The Associated Press from 2005-10, covering the Seahawks in their first Super Bowl season and beyond. He's also been The Sacramento Bee's beat writer on the Oakland Athletics and Raiders. The native of Steubenville, Ohio, is a 1993 graduate of the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, N.Y., and a 2000 graduate of the University of California, Berkeley's Graduate School of Journalism.

Eric,
I have noticed that a lot of the talk for next year includes someone sharing time with Julius Jones, as if Morris is gone. At this early stage, how do you see this situation turning out? Morris obviously had a much better year than Jones.

True, I’ll give him credit for being honest. Who’s got the cash to sign him? Good question, especially considering the economy. Denver needs d line help and they have no problem signing character issue guys. The Colts, but then again his character. He seems to fit the Raider profile to a tee but I’m not sure about their cap situation. In the end I think he stays put.

Williambryan: Ruskell signed Jones to be the guy during the offseason, and Holmgren wanted to give Morris an opportunity to earn a job in his contract year, so that’s why I believe Jones will be back next season instead of Morris. The Seahawks could choose to bring back Morris next season. However, I think that’s unlikely.

He’s awesome. Has he been on good behavior? Does he have more past than the face-stomping? He does amazingly well by himself against the run. My gut says he’ll get fat(ter), takes one to know one, to match his wallet and lose motivation. I’d rather have a young Raji who wants to prove himself, but 4 may be a little high.

Some time ago I saw a photo gallery of PA’s boat….er…I mean, ship. One of the captions noted that PA never sails on the thing. He sends it where he wants it to be, then flies in on the chopper. Who needs a timeshare? Just take your floating mansion anywhere in the world. Man, too cool.

Why wouldn’t the Seahawks be aggressive enough to go after him? -Ruskell said in his recent interview that the Dline sets up everything else in Mora’s defense. -He said they need to improve the pass rush. -They’ve got the cap room. -There are no college prospects with even the potential of Haynesworth’s ability. -And with one fell swoop, Haynesworth would provide the talent to create the high pressure Dline Ruskell covets, and make the entire defense (and the team overall) much better.

NO, NO, NO. I will be very upset if the Seahawks give Haynesworth a boatload of cash. The guy is ALL ABOUT THE MONEY. He will take the ‘Hawks cash, get fat, and fade into the sunset. If they are going to give someone some serious cash, it should be Nnamdi Asomugha. He will be a valuable player for many years to come.

I don’t think Morris has every really looked like a starting or feature back. He did ok in relief of Alexander but never really made me think he could carry the load.

A Jones/Duckett model is likely to be more durable and will probably be the way they go given the type of offense Mora will run and in pure passing situations don’t be surprised to see an empty set featuring Weaver instead of the other 2.

As for Haynesworth. I am funny about free agents. If you look back I think more big free agent signings flop than succeed and the ones that do succeed normally are the under the radar ones i.e. where a guy has been a back up behind a star and gets his chance elesewhere ala Michael Turner.

I don’t kid myself it is always about money with every player, but what I don’t hear from Haynesworth is how badly he wants to win a SB and that he is a high motor guy and driven! Those two things I think are very important in free agents. If you look at how succesful NE has been in taking over the hill players on the downside of their career and getting something out of them, the distinguishing thing has been those traits.

Is Haynesworth just sounds like the type of guy that wants the money and doesn’t really care if he plays or rides the pine for it as long as he gets it.

I REALLY hope we don’t throw a boatload of money at Haynsworth (unless it’s a toy boat) I get the distinct feeling that, while for the last couple of years, he’s been a great player, after he gets his fat contract, he’ll end up a “playa” if you catch my drift…he’ll be fat, dumb and happy (and rich) and not worry about what he got paid for. I DO like the sound of Grady Jackson though, and he’ll go for a lot less of Allen’s pocket change…:)

klm008 – Terrence Cody has already stated he’s going back to Alabama for his senior season.
Of course, he broke his arm once and missed his 3rd grade year of football, which means he’s injury prone, so I doubt we’d want him anyway (that was a joke).

This is football. Seattle is known for being soft. Bring in Haynesworth and that changes. The whole mentality of the team changes. I think it would be a great signing…

And here’s a newsflash for everyone – it’s all about the money to just about every player in the NFL – and that goes for MLB, the NBA and the NHL as well. If we stick to signing guys who will play for the league minimum and trading out of the first three rounds to avoid signing bonuses, will you change your perception? \

Leroy Hill is a great OLB, but you think he doesn’t want to see what the market will bring? Did Lofa sign for the minimum or did he get an enormous long term deal? I forget. How about Peterson? Oh, and Hasselbeck? Walter Jones playing for free, still? Trufant gave us a hometown discount and is playing for rent money, right? Yeah, sure..

I agree its all about the money, but it’s nice to at least here guys talk about winning, Haynesworth has talked about nothing but the money. Adrian Wilson could have taken more money to leave arizona but he wanted to be a part of something more than just money, So although money is a big part of the game it isn’t necessarily all there is to it..

I absolutely promise you he will not get fat after he signs a contract. He might well fade into the sunset, though it would have to be off of Puget Sound because he’s big enough to be seen from one side of Lake Washington to the other.

I say sign him. He’s a man among boys and would vastly upgrade the ‘Hawks D.

DTs are like RBs…they have a lot of obstacles to having long careers. Haynesworth has been hurt the last couple of years. Continue to build the middle through the draft (Mebane, Bryant, etc.) and resign Rocky, possibly draft Raji. CBs not only play longer, often times they’re converted to safety (R. Woodson) to further extend their career. IMO…

Signing Haynesworth = Doughnuts

Signing Nmadi = Take away opposition’s best WR, 80% of the time…for years.

Rogers-Cromartie was the cards 1st pick of ’08 and he got us 3 times this season. SF has some pretty good CBs that have been tough on us as well. J. Wilson is a perfect 3rd, K. Jennings is a back-up behind Babineux.

I think Timmy is in the final year of his contract and must know that another 4-12 season won’t get him an extention. With that being said, I think he will try to make a big splash with at least one FA signing; something like he did with Dielman, but obviously with better results. I think he may focus more on a Gross or Suggs.

Ramses Barden is a guy who hasn’t, have great timed speed, Isn’t real quick or sudden, Has room to improve as a route runner, Just average hands, Struggles to get separation, Not much of a deep threat, Inconsistent effort and concentration and he Did not play against top competition

Yes, he’s a stud. But I’ve also heard the rumors about him only playing for one big, fat contract (for a few years now). Perhaps he could be signed to an incentive laden contract where he has to meet workout bonuses, etc. then I’d be back on the bandwagon.

My biggest beef with Ruskell has been him giving boatloads (no pun intended) of money to guys who aren’t the best at their positions. Like Grant. I’m fine with paying a guy a lot of money if he’s really the best at what he does though (like Haynesworth).

I guess I’m gun-shy of players who play lights out in their contract season to get a huge contract then their effort level goes in the crapper ever since Shaun. At least Shaun pretended that he was a team guy when it got close to contract time. A.H. is flat out saying that all he cares about is money, and guaranteed money at that. Once he has that signing bonus in his pocket how much is he going to give us each week? 90%… 70%?

We might get 1 season of good effort out of him and that’s if we were in contention. The risk is a 380lb 15mil a year player who can’t play every down if we start out with a couple losses.

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